


Inevitable

by rileywrites



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Christmas, Multi, Mutual Pining, Polyamory Negotiations, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-04 10:27:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15839367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileywrites/pseuds/rileywrites
Summary: Katherine loves her husband, and while he's very smart, sometimes he's not very bright.For example, he doesn't use the two eyes God gave him to see what was right in front of his beautiful, stupid face.





	Inevitable

_"There's no escapin' us, pal. We're inevitable."_

...

When Jack and Katherine get married, they move into a cozy little two bedroom apartment. Between their salaries, they're able to get someplace fairly nice in a decent-ish neighborhood with space enough for both of them and then some.

 Once they're mostly settled, they insist that David take their spare room.

"C'mon, this way you don't gotta live with your folks, but you don't gotta live in some boarding house with people you hate." Jack claps a hand on David's shoulder. "Whaddaya say?"

David looks like they've scared him stiff, eyes wide and mouth dropped open.

"What about Crutchie?" is the first thing out of his mouth. Surely if anyone has a claim to the space, it's Jack's brother.

"He's staying at Spot's with him and Racer, remember?" Jack grins. "He's set for life, falling in with that crowd. They're taking good care of him."

"Well then, if that's not… I mean... surely you don't want me living with you." David is getting more flustered by the minute, and Katherine can't stand it. "You just got married, and you'll need the space for kids, and I can't -"

Kathrine takes his hand. "Yes, you can."

Her heart breaks a little when his face goes from shocked to tentatively hopeful.

"I can?"

"You can." Katherine squeezes his hand. "At least until you finish school, and then we can reassess. We won't be needing the room for a while, not with my career and everything."

"I don't know what to say."

"Say yes," Katherine and Jack command at once.

"I... yes." David's grin is adorable, and Katherine almost can't stand it. "Fine, you win. I'll move in.”

They promptly envelop him in a hug, squishing him between them until he has to tap out for air.

"You got real demonstrative with your affection since you got married, Jackie," David jokes.

"What?"

Katherine rolls her eyes. "He's saying you like to hug more, you dope."

"He's not a dope, he's a sap," David counters.

"He's both, and a softie too," Katherine adds, grinning at him.

Jack rolls his eyes. "What've I done? I'll be living with two wiseacres now. Why do I keep fallin' in with people that's smarter than me?"

"There's no running from us, pal," David says, laughing. "We're inevitable, remember?"

...

Jack is man enough to admit that he loves having Davey at the apartment.

Okay, so he's only man enough to admit it to his wife, but you've got to start somewhere.

Katherine teases him about his "demonstrative affection" when he gets particularly bad, and it reminds him to reign it in.

At least for a while, anyway.

So he's been a little bit in love with Davey since they formed the damn union. What of it?

And so maybe he's been _more_ than a little bit in love since Davey (and Katherine and Les) insisted he not run away. Who's to care?

At least his Ace thinks it's okay. He doesn't know where he'd be if he didn't have her support on the matter.

"I think I could love him like you do," Katherine says out of the blue one night, snuggled up against Jack's chest. "I love him like family now, but... I could love him like you do, if he'd let us."

"I don't know if he would, Ace. Now you? You are very loveable. The most loveable woman in the world, you are. Me? I'm just a bum with a decent job and some good luck."

Katherine pinches his arm. "Don't talk like that, Jack Kelly. I won't hear it."

"Still! What's he gonna do? Say he does like men, he may not like me. If he does like me, does he like you? If he does like both of us, what do we do then? Does he just live here forever?"

"There have been stranger things."

"It's still pretty damn queer, Ace."

Katherine wiggles around until she can sprawl more or less on top of him and look at his face.

"Jack. You love him. I love you. I think he could love us. Nothing has to happen right now, but stop panicking about nothing. Even if he hates the idea, this is David we are talking about. He'd never say a word to anyone else."

Jack thinks it over, the room silent save his and Katherine's breathing. She gives him the time he needs, bless her.

"You're right," Jack groans.

"I know I'm right. I just had to wait for you to catch up." Katherine kisses him. "Now please, sleep. We've got work in the morning."

Jack is the luckiest bastard on the goddamn planet to have landed the wife he has. He tells her as much.

"I know. Now sleep, Jack."

"Yes ma'am."

Jack doesn't fall asleep for an hour, running the conversation over in his head.

So what if he's in love with David? It's not like anything is going to happen.

...

Katherine loves her husband, and while he's very smart, sometimes he's not very bright.

For example, he doesn't use the two eyes God gave him to see what was right in front of his beautiful, stupid face.

"I've got a big exam tomorrow, so I'm going to head to bed."

Jack doesn't look up from his sketches. Instead he tosses a simple "Night, doll," over his shoulder and keeps working.

Katherine is the only one who sees the slight flush along David's cheeks, the way he hesitates in the doorway.

"Good night, Davey," Katherine says softly.

"Right. Right, uh... good night, you two."

It isn't the last time Jack calls him 'doll,' offhanded or during moments of weakness or exhaustion. It becomes a given for their odd little family -- Katherine is Ace, and David is Doll (and Dave. And Davey.)

They're all reading or working in the parlor when David gets up to go to the kitchen.

"Bring me another beer, doll," Jack says, squinting at his notebook before erasing something violently.

"Manners," Katherine and David chide together.

"Please," Jack drawls, accent thick with exhaustion and sarcasm. "Please, bring me another beer, doll."

"There you go, Jackie, using your manners," David says, handing him a beer. He and Katherine exchange an eye roll over Jack's head. "Only took a double reminder."

Jack scoffs. "I don't need my best girl and my best guy gangin' up on me like this. You could really do a fella harm, you know that?"

"No, Jackie, you're just dramatic," David drawls back, accent thick as molasses and thoroughly unimpressed. He returns to his usual armchair and his book, but Katherine can't focus now.

David must be tired, to let his accent slip like this. It's rough around the edges, tempered with the Yiddish his parents speak.

Katherine kind of adores it, loves that they get to see David with his guard down. He's usually so careful in the way he speaks.

(She also adores how fond he gets, even when he's exasperated. The softness of his eyes when he's looking at Jack, and sometimes, maybe, when he's looking at her.)

 …

David is dying here.

 Don't get him wrong, living with Jack and Katherine is amazing. He doesn't have to live with his parents, he doesn't have to live in a boarding house, and thanks to Jack and Katherine, he only has to work part-time to keep up his part of the bills.

He's also going steadily crazy playing gooseberry to his best friends.

It's been about eight or nine months now, and they're all so comfortable around each other. David sees them in their grumpiest, most tired moments, and he still loves them both more every moment.

Lately, Katherine has even been taking her hair down earlier in the evening. David is the only one besides Jack to see it down since the wedding, and it's such a tiny indicator of intimacy, he can't stand it.

It's just hair, right? But there's something about it, something his Ma pounded into him, that a married woman's hair is special. Sure, Katherine doesn't wear a headscarf like his Ma and Aunt Esther, or a wig like some of the other married Jewish women, but still.

David splashes his face with water as he shaves, trying to keep from obsessing over something as trivial as hairpins.

It's nearly the holidays, and he’ll be qualified to teach full time come spring, even with all the delays in his schooling. That's six or seven months to get his life together.

Six or seven months before he runs out of reasons to live with Jack and Katherine.

"…doll?"

David startles out of his reverie to find both Jack and Katherine looking at him, concerned.

"There you are. You wandered off, there for a minute." Jack squeezes his shoulder. "Anyway, I was tryin' to ask what your plans were for Christmas."

"I've never really done Christmas, but Ma'll want me home for Hanukah at the end of the month. I won't have to stay if I don't want to, but it'll make it easier."

"Right, right." Jack hums. "Is Hanukah early this year?"

"Yeah, it is. Why did you ask about Christmas?"

Katherine rests her hand on David's arm. "My father wants us to come over to the estate for Christmas dinner, and we were trying to decide if we were going. We didn't want to leave you alone on the holiday."

"It's just another day for me, except I don't have classes," David says with a shrug.

Jack snickers. "What she's saying is, please doll, give us a reason not to go to dinner with Joe."

"Well, I guess it would be nice to learn about new traditions…" David trails off with a smirk.

 Jack crows with laughter. Katherine and David exchange a long-suffering look.

"This is why you're my favorite, Davey-boy," Jack finally says, his laughter softening into what seems like a fond smile. "You're smart, and your mouth is even smarter."

 _I'll show you how smart my mouth is,_ some deep-seated part of David responds, and David can feel his face heat with his blush.

 "So I'm doing Hanukah with my folks and Les, and Christmas here. Great." David pretends to check the time. "I was planning on meeting some friends from class, so I should probably head out. Have a good evening, I'll be back by eleven."

It's fine. He's fine.

 He just needs some space, is all.

…

Christmas comes, and Jack could not be happier.

They get a tree from god knows where, a little spiky situation with some baubles and candles-- though Davey makes him put the candles out immediately, so they don't burn down the apartment.

This is the first Christmas with Davey, and the second since the wedding, and Jack still isn't over having money to give gifts and people to give them to.

He spends weeks picking them out, making sure he gets the best quality for the best price for his best guy and gal.

It's Davey's first Christmas actually celebrating, so they all go to midnight mass just to say they did it before coming home to a big late-night breakfast with wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"It is cold as hell out there," Davey complains, rubbing at his fingers. "I still can't wrap my head around you living in it."

"Oh, I came inside when it got this bad," Jack corrects, hanging up his coat. "That way, I just worked in the freezing cold. I came home to the usual stinkin' pile a' newsies, and we pretended we didn't cuddle for warmth."

If Jack isn't hallucinating, Davey's flush deepens.

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. Some of us didn't get weird about it, you know, me, Crutchie, Racetrack, whatever. Some guys refused to acknowledge the mass cuddling."

Katherine knows what he's implying, Jack can tell. The only question is, does Davey?

"Anyway, Ace here whipped us up some grub, so let's not insult the woman." Jack hooks an arm around Davey's neck and drags him playfully to the dining table. "Dig in, Davey-boy. Merry fuckin' Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Jack."

It comes out wrong.

Jack doesn't know why, but something is off about Davey's demeanor, about the way he responded. Now he won't even make eye contact.

Jack looks at Katherine, brow furrowed, and Katherine shrugs slightly.

Fine. He won't push the issue. It's fucking Christmas, right?

He still feels weird by the time they go to bed, a feeling he can't shake itching at the back of his brain. Katherine pets his hair until she falls asleep, leaving Jack alone with his thoughts in their little bedroom.

Jack is just about to drift off when he hears something on the fire escape, like someone's perching outside of their apartment. He slides out of bed and pulls on a sweater to poke his head outside.

David is sitting outside his window, a couple of yards down the escape from theirs. He's got a blanket around his shoulders and a lit cigar, face cast into strange shadows in the glow of the cherry.

"Didn't know you smoked, doll," Jack says quietly, sliding out of the bedroom and onto the escape. "Yous got a coat on under that blanket? Yous gonna freeze your ass off out here."

"M'fine, Jack. Go back to bed." There it is again, that weird tone. "I'll just be here a minute. Didn't want to smoke up my room. I know how Katherine gets about it."

Jack slowly crosses the space between them sitting next to Davey -- with a sizeable gap so's not to scare him off.

"Something's wrong. Now, I dunno what it is, or if it's any of my goddamn business, but I want you to know that I'm here if you need me, yeah? Newsies forever, especially for my best guy."

Davey closes his eyes and leans his head back against the wall. "You gotta quit with that shit, Jack."

"What? It's the truth. Ace is my best girl, Crutchie's my brother, and you's my best guy." Jack looks at him through lidded eyes. "Universal truths."

Davey's laugh is dry. "Universal truths, huh?"

"Yeah. Shit's that's always true, always gonna be true." This is coming dangerously close to a love confession, but Jack will do anything to get that haunted look out of Davey's eyes. "Inevitable."

What happened to the bright smiling kid from the strike? Hell, from three months ago? He always smiled so big, so easy. One of many things Jack envies of his upbringing.

_"That's right. Above. The fold."_

Looking back, if Jack hadn'ta been so damn broken up about Crutchie, he may have just kissed the goofy grin off of his damn face.

_"Good to have you back._

 Or even just a few months ago, when Katherine got him that book he'd been wanting for his birthday, signed by the author himself.

_"Katherine, this is too much, I can't--"_

_"You can."_

He lit up like a Christmas tree- the big ones in store windows and in the square, not like their little shrub.

"Something's wrong. I'm supposta be the only sour one around here, with my Ace and my Doll to lighten up the rough patches." Jack risks sliding a little closer, touching his shoulder to Davey's. "You just lemme know what I can do, so's I can help, yeah?"

"M'fine, Jack. Go back to bed." Davey won't look at him, won't make eye contact, and it's breaking Jack's heart. "Please."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. Just… don't stay out too long, okay? You'll catch your death out here in just that blanket." Jack slides back, ready to duck back into the bedroom, when-

"Jackie?"

Jack turns to face him instantly. "Yeah, Dave?"

"I-" Davey's face closes off. "Never mind. Good night, Jack."

"Good night, Davey."

Katherine is awake when Jack crawls back into the room and closes the window.

"What's wrong?" she asks, rubbing at her eyes.

"I dunno. Something, that's for damn sure." Jack sheds his sweater and climbs into bed, curling around Katherine with his head on her chest. "I don't like it, Ace."

"I know, Jack. We'll figure it out." Katherine pulls the covers up around them, tucking in the corners and holding him even tighter. "We always do."

…

David talks himself down from his little episode between Jack going back to bed and the end of the cigar, returning to his room and stoking the fire before he crawls back into his cold bed.

He'll stay through the holidays, but then he needs to start looking for a place to move. A boarding house, maybe, or maybe one of the guys at school has a spare room and is looking for a roommate.

 Something, anything that will keep him from falling into the increasingly tempting mental trap of pretending he belongs here.

He's barely gotten to sleep when someone knocks on his door.

"David? David, I've got breakfast ready if you want to come join us," Katherine says quietly. "If not, I'll put a plate in the oven for you."

David weighs the cost-benefit analysis of having to face Jack compared with disappointing Katherine.

"No, no, I'll… gimme like five minutes and I'll be up," David calls.

 "Okay, take your time." Katherine pauses. "Merry Christmas, David."

"Merry Christmas, Katherine."

David gets up and quickly dresses, shaving as fast as he can without hurting himself. He wants to look nice for their first Christmas.

 Katherine and Jack are sitting at the table when he walks in, and they both perk up when they see him.

"Good morning and Merry Christmas, doll." Jack pulls his chair out for him. "Come, sit. Ace cooked us up a feast, and I managed to scare up some good coffee."

"Good coffee? It must be a special event, given the potting soil you usually buy."

 Jack laughs. "C'mon man, I got used to drinking barely brown water from the convent. Any coffee is good coffee to me."

"Because you have a less-than-discerning palate," David shoots back, managing something that approximates a grin.

Breakfast goes quickly, now that the banter is back, and soon Jack is herding them to the living room and the presents under (beside) the tree.

"Okay, it's Davey's first Christmas, so Davey should go first." Katherine hands him a small package, and he takes it reverently.

His first Christmas present is a beautiful pocket watch with a Star of David engraved on the lid.

"This is beautiful, Katherine. I don't know what to say, besides thank you."

Katherine leans over to peck his cheek. "You're welcome. I thought it would be a nice nod to your heritage, and you'll need a good watch when you're a teacher."

"It's perfect." David wraps an arm around her for a quick hug. "Okay, who's next?"

"Me, for you." Jack hands him a package, and David opens it carefully.

It's their article, framed alongside a fresh woodcut of Jack's political cartoon, along with a photo David doesn't remember taking of the three of them and Les the day the strike ended.

They look so damn happy.

"This is perfect, Jackie, thank you."

"I figured you'd want somethin' to remember us by, once you're out in the world takin' on academia and all that shit."

They decide that Katherine is next. Jack got her a beautiful new coat, and David found the most gorgeous set of hairpins and combs at a little store his Ma likes to stop at.

"These are perfect, David. Thank you." Katherine kisses his cheek. "I love them."

"I saw them and thought of you." David smiles slightly. "They're beautiful."

Katherine's smile is soft, gentle, _painful_.

 "For sure?" She asks, imitating Jack's hopeful gruff cadence.

"For sure."

The moment lingers, until finally Katherine blinks and sits back in her chair.

"Jack's turn," she says, smile brightening.

"Mine first," David insists, knowing whatever their Ace has planned will inevitably blow his gift out of the water.

Jack takes his package and carefully opens the wrappings.

"Davey, doll… this is too much."

So maybe David went slightly crazy, getting the nice suspenders with fancy clips to match the tie clip to match the cufflinks, but they're all beautifully engraved and David saved for ages to get them along with Katherine's hair clips.

"You deserve nice things, Jack." It comes out flatter than he wants, stifled by the unnerving need to shove emotion down.

 "Doll…" Jack slides off of the settee and wraps his arms around David's neck. "I love 'em. Thank you so much, Dave."

He returns to his seat when David doesn't hug back very long.

"Me next." Katherine's gift is in an envelope with ribbon tied around it, and she can't hide her grin.

Jack opens it without tearing anything and pulls out a piece of paper.

He reads, eyes widening.

"Is this… Ace, is this true?"

Katherine's grin widens impossibly.

"It is, Jack. The doctor said so."

Jack whoops and sweeps Katherine into a hug, spinning her around (carefully) and setting her back down.

"Pregnant, for sure?"

"For sure."

David's ears are ringing. He closes his eyes tightly and takes a breath.

His head swims.

"I have to go."

…

When Jack looks up, Davey is gone. Just… gone.

"Fuck." Jack goes to follow him, but he stops before he even gets his hands off of Katherine. "Ace, I gotta… Should I… what do I do?"

"Follow him," Katherine says simply. She has Jack's coat in hand almost immediately. "Before he does something stupid."

"Right, yeah." Jack pulls on his coat and finds his shoes by the door. "I'll be back just as soon as I can get him back, okay?"

"Start at his parents' place, then try the deli and the boarding house, in that order. He may think to go hide out with Les, or with one of the guys." Katherine kisses him. "Find our boy. Help him realize he belongs here."

Jack fucking runs, hoping he'll catch him on the stairs or out on the street, but Davey has disappeared into the distance by the time he gets outside.

Because Jack is man enough to admit that his wife is smarter than he is, he follows her instructions. He isn't with his parents, the deli is filled with people who aren't Davey, and he's nowhere to be found at the boarding house.

"I think I saw him go by, down to the water," Specs says, gesturing out the window. "Looked real shook up. What happened, Jack?"

"I don't know yet." Jack claps Specs on the shoulder. "Thanks for the tip."

He braves the cold again, cursing his cushy office job for making him go soft. He ain't got a lick a' tolerance for weather anymore.

Sure enough, Jack finds Davey at the docks, sitting on a pile of crates and staring out at the water.

"Yo, Dave, have you lost your goddamn mind? Get the fuck down from there and get your ass home."

Davey doesn't say anything.

He doesn't even move.

Jack hauls himself up to Davey's level and sits beside him.

"This feels like the fire escape all over again," he remarks

More silence from Davey.

"Look, Davey, if you're worried about us kicking you out, we're not gonna--"

"That's not it."

Jack looks over at him, softening when he sees how hurt David looks. "Then what is it, David?"

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't call me David. It doesn't sound natural coming from you."

"Yous rather I called you doll?"

Davey shrugs. "Yeah. I would."

"Okay then, we're getting somewhere." Jack scoots a little closer. "So, what's the problem, doll?"

Davey shrugs again. "I dunno."

"Don't lie to me, Jacobs. You're a shit liar."

Silence. That's fine, Jack can wait.

Then, finally, "I'm intruding."

 "What, here? Yeah, on accounta we's sitting on some boxes we ain't own." Jack bumps his shoulder. "If you're talking about home, you're not intruding."

"How could I not be? Jack, you and Katherine have only been married a year and a half. I've lived with you for eight months of that. There's no way that I'm not intruding on your family."

That stabs Jack right in the gut.

"Davey… Davey, you _are_ family."

"No, Jack, I'm not! I'm not your fucking family, because I'm just a guy you know who happens to live in your apartment."

"Of course you're more than that, idiot. Have you lost your mind? We love you."

"There's no way I--" He pulls up short. "You love me?"

Jack thumps his shoulder. "Of course we do. We wouldn’t have anyone live with us if we didn't."

Davey seems to think that over for a long moment.

"Jack, I don't think you understand how I feel."

Look, Davey is the eloquent one. Jack is more a man of action, and, in the panic of potentially losing Davey to whatever the fuck is wrong, his brain shuts off a little.

 He ducks in and kisses Davey, quick as lightening.

"You sure about that?" Jack asks, voice rough. "Because I think I'm starting to."

Davey pushes back, looking horrified. "Jack, what about Katherine?"

"She knows. She's been pushing me to do something about it for months."

"R-really?"

"Really. Apparently, I'm less than subtle."

That gets the color back in Davey's cheeks as he laughs. "She's not wrong."

 "She never is. I'm just blind, apparently." Jack hops down off of the crates and holds out a hand. "Now, come home so we can talk this through in the warmth?"

Davey takes his hand.

…

_Epilogue_

"Can I hold her?" Les asks, peering at the bundle in Katherine's arms.

"You can, but be gentle."

"I'm fifteen, Kathy. I know how to hold a baby."

Katherine laughs. "Oh, well, _excuse me_."

Les takes the baby, carefully cradling her against his chest.

 "She's perfect," he whispers, in awe.

"She really is." Jack kisses Katherine's hair. "You do good work, Ace."

"We're lucky she looks like her mother," Davey teases, grinning even wider when Jack snags Les' hat to smack him. "Hey, hey, easy Jackie. Not around the baby."

"She's gonna be christened soon," Les says, still marveling at the infant. "Have you got a name yet?"

"We're going to call her Sarah," Jack says softly. "Sarah Elizabeth Kelly."

"It's perfect."

 "David picked it," Katherine says, tugging David down for a quick kiss. "Jack and I couldn't agree on anything, and then David said Sarah Elizabeth and it just clicked."

"You named her after our Sarah, David?"

David's smile is rougher this time. "Yeah, I did."

"I love it." Les kisses her little forehead. "You's a lucky girl, Sarah-bear, with two dads, an awesome mom, and a million uncles to watch out for ya."

"Yeah, she's lucky." Katherine pulls her boys down to sit with her on either side of the bed. "We're both very lucky girls."

"Luck's got nothin' to do with it," Jack says, kissing Katherine's hair.

"Yeah, it ain't luck. We're inevitable.”

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all, this is the first thing I've managed to finish and post in months, and it's for a fandom I just recently joined. Please, be gentle.


End file.
